Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to devices, methods and computer programs for reconstructing a motion of an object by means of pre-constructed and/or pre-stored motion sequences of a computer model of the object.
Description of Conventional Art
In numerous applications, it seems desirable to be able to provide reliable motion reconstructions, such as for the situation and/or motion analysis in sports broadcasts. For example, in many sports, such as soccer, handball, American football, basketball, baseball, boxing—just to name a few—there is a need to analyze particular movement situations of athletes and/or a piece of play equipment (e.g. a ball) in real time or afterwards (post-production).
Currently, mainly optical, i.e., camera system-based, systems are used for this purpose by means of which motion situations of interest may be repeatedly reproduced and analyzed, for example by means of repetitions and slow motion settings. However, in practice, such systems regularly reach their limits so that it may repeatedly happen that even a slow motion does not allow for sufficient validity in terms of a doubtful game situation and/or a doubtful motion course. In some situation, a motion and/or a position of an object cannot be clearly recognized from a particular angle of view, such as an angle of a camera which has captured the game situation, as, e.g., a view of the decisive body parts and/or play equipment is blocked by other objects.
Particularly such incorrect decisions should be avoided which can dramatically affect the result of a sports event as sports events and their result in professional sports mostly entail a high financial and/or economic value. Prominent examples include penalty decisions, offside decisions or goal decisions in soccer. In other types of sport, there are decisions of a comparable level of importance which, based on optical systems, can often only be made in an insufficiently accurate way.